Wireless communication systems are constantly evolving. System designers are continually developing greater numbers of features for both service providers as well as for the end users. In the area of wireless phone systems, cellular based phone systems have advanced tremendously in recent years. Wireless phone systems are available based on a variety of modulation techniques and are capable of using a number of allocated frequency bands. Available modulation schemes include analog FM and digital modulation schemes using Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Each scheme has inherent advantages and disadvantages relating to system architecture, frequency reuse, and communications quality. However, the features the manufacturer offers to the service provider and which the service provider offers to the consumer are similar between the different wireless systems.
Regardless of the modulation scheme in use, the wireless phone available to the end user has a number of important features. Nearly all wireless phones incorporate at least a keyboard for entering numbers and text, and a display that allows the user to display text, dialed numbers, pictures and incoming caller numbers. Additionally, wireless phones may incorporate electronic phonebooks, speed dialing, single button voicemail access, and messaging capabilities, such as e-mail.
The features described above present only a sample of features that are capable of, or have already been, implemented into wireless phone systems. Any individual feature is capable of implementation into some or all of the wireless systems using the modulation schemes mentioned above. A particularly useful feature provides caller identification.
An automatic number identification device is used in a telephone system to enable a telephone central office to identify from which of two parties on a two party telephone service a call is originating and is coupled to a pair of telephone lines extended from the telephone central office to one of the parties being served by the two party telephone service. In other words, an automatic number identification system allows a modem or a telephone to identify the caller ID signals without user intervention. Some telephones and modems are equipped with ANI capability to provide users the convenience of ANI system.
An ANI system is also useful for such state-of-the-art technology as “recall.” When an attempted telephone call goes unanswered, the caller ID is identified by an automatic number identification system on the called telephone and stored in a memory device such as a random access memory (RAM). When a user on the called telephone side wishes to call the last number the user missed, the user can press a special “recall” button or a combination of buttons, such as the “*” key followed by the “9” key, on the user's telephone key panel to initiate an outgoing call to the last number that called. Upon detecting a special key sequence for “recall,” the user's telephone makes a “recall” to the telephone number that last called.
In an ANI system, caller ID signals are sent to a called modem or a telephone when a call is made to the called telephone number. The caller ID signals provide the called telephone or modem with identification of the calling telephone. The called telephone uses the caller ID (ANI) signals to identify the calling telephone or modem. Typical caller ID signals include frequency shift keyed (FSK) modem tones transmitted between rings of the ringing signal. A similar system for providing the name of a caller is referred to as calling name presentation (CNAP).
It is a drawback of the prior art that current ANI and CNAP functionality provides limited control to an end user/operator on what is displayed at the called party device. In the prior art only the name and number of the caller or a restriction code e.g. private call may be displayed.
It is a further drawback of the prior art that the database cannot be programmed to, based on the time and day, provide a specific caller name and/or a specific caller number and/or a specific caller message. The prior art also cannot invoke a fixed set of settings based on a day and/or a time.